Pronunciation of two consecutives ㅇ

Question

The letter ㅇ at the beginning of a syllable isn't pronounced and the letter ㅇ acts as a filler letter. In addition, when a syllable starts with ㅇ and the previous syllable ends with a consonant, the word is usually pronounced as if the consonant was moved to the ㅇ's location.

For example, 먹어요 is usually pronounced like 머거요, or 맛있어요 is pronounced like 마시써요. (Note that the rule is not always followed, as 맛없어요 is pronounced as if the two words were separated, that is 맡 없어요).

What is the rule when a ㅇ ends the syllable just before a syllable starting by ㅇ? How are 광안리 (a famous beach in Busan), 경우 (a case or an instance), 영우 (a first name) pronounced? Is the ending ㅇ just ignored?

Note: I tried to use Google but the voice isn't really clear.

Answer 1

The letter ㅇ at the beginning of a syllable isn't pronounced and the letter ㅇ acts as a filler letter. In addition, when a syllable starts with ㅇ and the previous syllable ends with a consonant, the word is usually pronounced as if the consonant was moved to the ㅇ's location.

That is true.

For example, 먹어요 is usually pronounced like 머거요, or 맛있어요 is pronounced like 마시써요. (Note that the rule is not always followed, as 맛없어요 is pronounced as if the two words were separated, that is 맡 없어요).

맛없어요 is actually pronounced [마덥써요]. The rule is, move the final consonant

1. if the following syllable starts with a ㅇ(which means it starts with a vowel)
   

   1. except the following syllable is a first syllable of a new morpheme which has actual meaning(content morpheme). In this case, the final consonant is applied to the coda rule and then moved to the next syllable.

      1. except the following vowel starts with /j/(ㅑ/ㅕ/ㅛ/ㅠ/ㅣ). In most of these cases, ㄴ is added to the second syllable instead.

   2. except the consonant is a ㅇ. ㅇ at the end of a syllable is pronounced /ŋ/(sing). Since Korean doesn't allow /ŋ/ at the initial position of the syllable, it doesn't get moved to the next syllable. Instead, it gets pronounced /ŋ/ in the first syllable.

Rule 1 example:

꽃이 [꼬치], 부엌에 [부어케], 맛을 [마슬], 꽂아[꼬자]

The last consonant is simply moved to the second syllable.

Rule 1.1 example:

꽃 위에 [꼬뒤에], 부엌 아래 [부어가래], 겉옷 [거돋], 헛웃음 [허두슴]

What qualifies as content morphemes in the Korean language? They are anything but markers(particles), verb endings, and suffixes. Anything that are not one of those three must be pronounced after applying the coda rule.

The coda rule replaces the final consonants with seven major ones:

• ㄱ, ㅋ -> ㄱ[k̚]
• ㄴ [n]
• ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ -> ㄷ [t̚]
• ㄹ [l]
• ㅁ [m]
• ㅂ, ㅍ -> ㅂ [p̚]
• ㅇ [ŋ]

According to this rule, 맛있다 and 멋있다 should be pronounced [마딛따] and [머딛다]. But in reality, they are pronounced [마싣따] and [머싣따]. So they are considered the only exceptions to this rule. All other instances are pronounced according to this rule.

Rule 1.1.1 example:

솜이불 [솜니불], 삯일 [상닐], 불여우 [불려우], 어학연수 [어항년수]

This is called ㄴ-addition. It often occurs even between words. But this is a whole another question.

Rule 2 example:

경우 is therefore pronounced /kjʌŋ.u/, 광안리 is /kwaŋ.al.li/. (. is the syllable separator)

Answer 2

When final ㅇ is followed by another ㅇ beginning the next syllable, there is no change: the first ㅇ is pronounced as 'ng' at the end of the syllable - it does not move to the following syllable because initial 'ng' is not possible in Korean ¹ . The second ㅇ is silent. So 광안리 is pronounced:

광 + 알 + 리 (gwang-al-li).

¹ At least officially. In practice it's difficult to tell exactly where syllables are divided.

Answer 3

There is 'Phoneme Assimilation Rule (음운동화)' in Korean which is as complicated as it gets. However, if you try to follow the examples, you will be able to get the gist about it.

The following link about 음운동화 has the following rule:

Article. 20: The final consonant 'ㄴ' is pronounced as 'ㄹ' before or after 'ㄹ' as follows:

난로[날ː로], 신라[실라], 천리[철리], 광한루[광ː할루], 대관령[대ː괄령]

칼날[칼랄], 물난리[물랄리], 줄넘기[줄럼끼], 할는지[할른지]

But there are some exceptions:

의견란[의ː견난], 임진란[임ː진난], 생산량[생산냥], 결단력[결딴녁], 공권력[공꿘녁], 동원령[동ː원녕], 상견례[상견녜], 횡단로[횡단노], 이원론[이ː원논], 입원료[이붠뇨], 구근류[구근뉴]

It's not easy to explain why those listed above are pronounced differently, but most of them are compound nouns, for example, 의견 + 란, 임진 + 란, 생산 + 량, 결단 + 력, etc.

The name of the beach in Busan '광안리' should be pronounced as '광알리' according to this rule. Some in local dialects pronounce it as '광안니', but it is not a standard pronunciation.

How are 경우 (a case or an instance), 영우 (a first name) pronounced?

You can pronounce them as they are written [경우] and [영우].